


Fire and Ice

by pleasereadmeok



Category: The Good Wife (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 14:39:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4483157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasereadmeok/pseuds/pleasereadmeok
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“This is my wife, Caroline.”<br/>“Hi Eli, Marissa.  Are you joining us?”  Caroline asked.<br/>“Oh I think I MUST.”  Eli was not going to miss THIS.  THIS could go horribly wrong and Eli felt he had to be the one to stop it going nuclear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire and Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Perfectkindofmess gave me a prompt - 'Maybe you can write a fic about what happens a few days after Finn’s last visit at Alicia’s? Maybe some awkward moment between Alicia, Finn, Peter and Finn’s wife?' I started writing after about 5 minutes thinking about it and this is the result. So thanks for the prompt Perfect! This actually takes place about a month after Finn said "Bye."
> 
> I had fun with this - mainly because I've always made Finn's wife a really nice woman in other fics - I figured that he wouldn't be with a cow. But even the nicest people can turn nasty when they are jealous or threatened. 
> 
> The only writing I do in my job is technical specifications - basically numbered lists - and I managed to get one of them in here as well - Hurrah!

_“No, no, no!! This is unbelievable. This cannot be happening!”_  
Alicia stared. She couldn’t help staring. Sitting two tables away from where she had just been seated at the restaurant was someone she knew all too well. A man who just a month ago had felt there was ‘something’ between them. That was the moment when Alicia realised, yes, there was something. But she realised too late - Finn was going back to his wife. 

Finn was sitting with a woman who was either his wife or he was involved in a whole other level of infidelity. Their hands were together on the table, fingers entwined. Alicia felt like throwing up. She had to sit and witness it all and wait for Peter and Eli.

Alicia had spent the last month hoping that Finn would turn up on her doorstep to say, “I made a big mistake. I want to be with you”, but he never came. They had occasionally bumped into each other. There was only a quick, “Hey Alicia”, or the briefest of shy, sheepish smiles, but nothing else. Finn was obviously avoiding her. 

Alicia tried to focus on something else, anything else, but her eyes kept drifting over to Finn and the unknown woman. She was beautiful – of course she would be. Finn was a handsome man so no surprise that he had attracted a stunningly beautiful wife. Her short blonde hair showed off features like an angel. She was young too. _"At least 15 years younger than me!"_ Alicia reckoned. 

Alicia wasn’t the only one who was looking. Men (and women) at other tables stole looks at the tall, elegant woman with a body to die for and ice blue eyes.  
_“An Ice Queen. I bet she is as boring as paint drying!”_ Alicia thought uncharitably. On cue, Finn laughed, clearly fascinated and entertained by what the woman was saying. _“Oh well – I suppose her being dull was too much to hope for. Maybe she’s brainless.”_ No – Finn wouldn’t go for that. _“God this is torture. Why can’t I just go over and say ‘Hi’ like an adult?”_

The decision was taken out of her hands. Peter was being shown ceremoniously to the table, with Eli scurrying behind him like a small child, followed by a smirking Marissa. Everyone turned to look. Finn’s wife turned her pale eyes to look. Finn turned to look. His eyes met Alicia’s and stayed there just a second too long to be comfortable.  
“Finn? Is everything OK?” The angel asked.  
“Fine. It’s just some people I know. I… I ought to say hello.” He rose and unexpectedly she followed.

“Hey.”  
“Finn.” Peter replied briskly.  
“Hey Alicia – I didn’t see you there. This is my wife, Caroline.”  
“Hey.” Was all that Alicia managed to choke out before Peter was by Caroline’s side. He did this partly to annoy Finn but mostly because he wanted to meet the most beautiful woman in the room.  
“Hey Caroline.” He purred. “I’m Peter Florrick.”  
“Oh yes of course – the Governor. How lovely to meet you.”  
Finn ignored Peter’s fawning attentions to his wife. “Caroline this is my friend Alicia Florrick. Do you remember we worked together for a while?”  
Caroline looked at Alicia like she was working out a puzzle. “Yes.” Judging by the acid look she gave Alicia, Caroline remembered alright. “Hey Alicia.” _“So that’s her? What does he see in her? She’s way older than him and starting to sag. Seriously?”_

“Why don’t you join us?” Peter insisted.  
Finn looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights but Caroline was loving Peter’s attentiveness. “That would be great. I haven’t met many of Finn’s friends in Chicago.”  
Peter glared at Finn and saw the look of panic he gave Alicia who could offer no help.

Eli hovered. No-one had introduced him. They were so wrapped up in their own awkwardness. He pouted and waited. Marissa didn’t wait. She waved at the new person in the assembled group.  
“Hi. I’m Marissa.”  
Finn was the first to remember his manners. “Eli, Marissa – I’m so sorry. Caroline this is Eli Gold, he … um… I never did find out what your job title is and Marissa who is .. er...” Finn never quite understood what Marissa did either.  
Luckily Marissa took over. “Don’t mind me. I’m just here for the free food and wine!” She laughed.  
“This is my wife, Caroline.”  
“Hi Eli, Marissa. Are you joining us?” Caroline asked.  
“Oh I think I MUST.” Eli was not going to miss THIS. THIS could go horribly wrong and Eli felt he had to be the one to stop it going nuclear. 

Eli studied the four people sat at the table:-  
1) Peter - seething with jealously because he was convinced Alicia had slept with Finn. He wanted his wife back but he wasn’t prepared to give up his pleasures to make it happen. Now he had Finn’s wife in his sights and that was not good.  
2) Alicia – who may or may not have slept with Finn – but really that didn’t matter because it was obvious that there was ‘something’ between them. She resented Peter who had cheated on her repeatedly and now wanted to use her for the presidential campaign. That was not good either.  
3) Finn – looked like a love sick puppy around Alicia most of the time. Obviously he was in love with her but he also seemed to want to stay with his wife for some reason. Wasn’t there a son? Maybe that was the reason? Who knew if he had slept with Alicia. It sure looked like it. That wasn’t good.  
4) And Caroline – a new actor in this tawdry play who was becoming aware of her husbands feelings for Alicia right at that table. Caroline watched Finn trying not to look at the Governors wife and Eli saw the beautiful Ice Queen was getting more and more fiery by the minute. That was bad, very, very bad. 

Eli could see all of this - unfortunately the four people involved in this unfolding drama – couldn’t. Yes Eli had to stay for THIS to save Peter from a scandal, but also to feed his curiosity. He had to admit to himself that he really, really, wanted to see how it would turn out!

Marissa looked on with her amusement barely concealed. _“This is SO great.”_ She wasn’t going to miss THIS either. She had a ring side seat for what promised to be a knockout fight. “Well the gangs all here.” She said as she sat down. _“All we need is Johnny Elfman and we have a greek tragedy in the making!”_ She thought. Just like her father, she looked around the table. Alicia SO wanted Finn. Finn SO wanted Alicia. Peter wanted any woman with a pulse. What about the ‘Ice Queen’? _“God knows what she wants. Her husband not to be in love with a woman who is – what - twice her age?!”_

“So Caroline, where has Finn been hiding you?” Peter smarmed. Marissa sniggered at the cheesy line. Eli kicked her leg under the table and it was her turn to pout back at her father.  
“Oh I was living in New York up until a few weeks ago. I moved here to be with Finn – with _our son_ of course.” She watched for Alicia’s reaction. Alicia shot a look of distress at Finn. So Caroline was playing that card. _“I am the mother of his son – remember that!”_

“Let’s order some more wine” Alicia suggested.  
“Great idea.” Finn agreed with relief. Alcohol and lots of it was needed to get through this.  
“Not for me.” Caroline countered. Her steely gaze at Alicia all but said, _“You sad old lush!”_  
So no, Caroline was not dull, not brainless – _“Just a bitch”_ , Alicia thought.  
Marissa caught the look Caroline gave Alicia and suggested innocently, “Maybe you’d like some milk instead Caroline?” _“In a saucer – like a CAT?!”_  
Caroline looked perplexed. She wasn’t sure if she was being insulted. She was.  
“Oh it’s Marissa’s mission in life to get people to drink milk!” Alicia saved the situation – just. 

Alicia and Finn practically fell into the bottle of wine when it arrived, glugging back a large glass each in a second. The faithful wife chided her husband,  
“Finn darling, slow down, you know you get a little…” She looked at Alicia. “… Although I’m not complaining.” She whispered a little too loudly into Finn’s ear. She bit her lip coquettishly and stared at Alicia. Caroline might as well have said, _“Yeah, he will just get tipsy and fuck me like a rabbit when we get home.”_  
Alicia decided to ignore the implication but couldn’t help getting a mental picture of them fucking like rabbits. Marissa caught her eye and pulled a face – she was imagining the same thing.

Finn poured himself another glass and downed it in one, passing the bottle to Alicia, he knew she would need it too. He stopped a waiter.  
“Can I get a Bourbon here please? Alicia?” She nodded, ignoring the others. “Bring the bottle.”  
“Err. OK sir.”  
Caroline leant over to whisper in Finn’s ear, again just a touch too loud.  
“Darling don’t forget we need your swimmers healthy – don’t get them drunk now!”  
Alicia felt like she had been slapped. _“Oh my god! They’re trying for another baby!”_  
Finn looked shocked, clearly it was news to him as well. Caroline’s self satisfied face said it all. _“Take that you dried up menopausal old hag. I’M still fertile. I can still give him a baby!”_

Alicia wasn’t going to be put down so easily, she turned to talk business with Finn to deliberately exclude Caroline. So Caroline turned to Peter. He seemed totally unaware that he was being used as a pawn to provoke Finn into jealousy. They talked conspiratorially. She touched his arm, laughed at his jokes, flicked her hair and made it clear she was interested. Peter was convinced she was a sure thing when she put a hand on his knee. Eli nearly fainted. Marissa shrieked with laughter. Alicia was furious. Finn glared at Caroline. Peter’s ego beamed like lighthouse.

After a while Caroline got up to use the powder room. A second later Peter got a phone call and reluctantly had to leave the table but at least Eli and Marissa would still be there to keep Alicia and Finn from getting cosy. He hadn’t realised that Eli just followed his lord and master out like a grateful dog.

Marissa looked at Alicia and Finn like she expected them to start making love in the middle of the table. Finn was direct.  
“Marissa I need to talk to Alicia alone. Take a walk.”  
She was offended. “But I don’t want to miss anything!”  
Alicia pleaded. “Please Marissa.”  
“Oh alright.” She rolled her eyes. “But I want details later!” She wandered off to the powder room, maybe she could catch the Ice Queen in there. She rubbed her hands together.

“Fucking hell!!!” Hearing Finn swear was a shock but quite frankly the situation they were in called for swearing – a lot of swearing.  
“I’m so sorry – this is a nightmare. I couldn’t believe it when I saw you were here as well. Peter is…”  
“A son of a bitch!”  
Alicia laughed. “If only you knew his mother. Why is Caroline playing up to him? I thought you two were OK together now?”  
“The jury is still out on that one. I think she’s put two and two together. I… told her I had feelings for someone I worked with before we got back together.”  
“Oh my god! You told her?! Jesus Finn I’m surprised she didn’t throw you out!”  
“She did! Tonight is our first ‘make up’ date.”  
“Oh god this just gets worse! Why the hell did you tell her that?”  
“I don’t know. We were arguing. It just came out. I didn’t say it was you. It must be obvious. Oh GOD!” He hit his head on the table in front of him. “She’s not usually like this. I just bring it out in her at the moment.” He pulled an anguished face. “I wish we could just run away and leave them to it.”  
“Let’s do it!”  
“I can’t. If I piss her off she won’t let me see my son.”  
“I know a lawyer who can help you with that.” Alicia smiled at Finn.  
“Yeah, but you can’t stop her bad mouthing me to my son in the meantime. She’ll make him hate me.”  
“Look Finn we really need to talk – meet me?”

Just then Peter and Caroline reappeared, noticeably flushed and a little untidy. Eli and Marissa followed after and saw the awful truth. The Ice Queen’s buttons were done up in the wrong holes and her hair was ruffled. Peter was missing a button on his shirt and his zipper was not quite closed. Eli’s eyes widened with horror. “Oh. My. God!”  
Marissa’s mouth dropped open. “Fuck!” 

It was obvious that Peter and Caroline had had some sort of ‘encounter’. Finn bit his lip, raised his eyebrows and said to Alicia,  
“I think I’m going to need that lawyer.”  
“Me too.”

Eli swooped in like an eagle. “Peter we need to go.”  
Finn stood up. “Thanks for that Peter. You’ve made this so much easier for me. I have NEVER laid a finger on your wife. Sadly, I don’t think you can say the same about mine!” Finn’s anger made Caroline realise she’d gone to far. She and Peter had just been getting their own back on their ‘faithless’ partners. They had played with fire and they were about to get burned.

Finn turned to smile at Alicia. “They think we are sleeping together anyway – let’s just make it true shall we?”  
Alicia’s smile was radiant with happiness. “Yes – I think we should. My lawyer will be in touch Peter.”  
“And mine with you.” Finn added to Caroline.  
“No! No! No!” Eli screamed.  
“Yes, yes, yes, Eli.” Alicia corrected. Finn had pushed the nuclear button and there wasn’t a damned thing Eli could do about it. Caroline and Peter’s stunt had just succeeded in pushing the two ‘innocent’ party’s together. They sat stunned as Alicia took Finn’s offered hand and walked out of the restaurant with him – accompanied by Marissa’s whooping and cheering. She caught sight of Eli’s pursed lips. “What?!” She shrugged.

Outside of the restaurant Finn and Alicia were giggling like nervous schoolchildren. “Oh my god! What did we just do?” Alicia was buzzing.  
“Burned our bridges forever I think.”  
“Are you sorry?”  
“Not yet.” Finn hailed a cab.

In the back of the cab they were shy with each other at first. They held hands like teenagers on a first date. When each of them looked at the other they smiled and coyly looked away. They had taken such an enormous step to be together, to be with someone they had barely touched, let alone kissed. Their first kiss was a disaster. They were smiling so much when they kissed their teeth bumped together painfully in the process. Soon they got the hang of it and when they reached their destination the cab driver had to work hard to get their attention because they were so engrossed with each other’s mouths, kissing like their lives depended on it.

Luckily Finn still had the lease on his old apartment and so they went there. The only piece of furniture left to sit on was the bed – so they collapsed on that.  
“Did we really do that? That was like a scene from a Mexican soap opera!” Finn laughed.  
“Now we have to deal with the aftermath.”  
“No – not yet. I can’t think about it yet.” He pulled Alicia on top of him with a kiss so full of fire and passion she was breathless.  
“Finn stop.”  
“What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing it was … hot! But maybe we should talk first?” That sure succeeded in putting the fire out.  
Finn’s anguished expression was painful. “Talk?! That’s not exactly what I had in mind!”  
“Talk first.”  
He rolled his eyes. “Can we talk while we’re naked?”  
“No! That would be distracting.”  
“But I want to distract you.” He kissed behind her ear and down the side of her neck - which in that moment Alicia discovered that she loved.  
“Stop it. We need to talk.”  
“Clothes off first?”  
“No.”

“Why is it that I feel so damned guilty when they were the one’s that… whatever they did. Can you believe that?” Alicia still wasn’t sure it had really happened.  
“Well it certainly helped me make a decision about what to do.”  
“But you didn’t leave because of that. There must have been more to it.”  
“You’re right. It just wasn’t working. She was always pissed at me for something or other. Fundamentally I think she still blames me for the death of our baby.”  
“That’s ridiculous. Why?”  
“I wasn’t there. A case ran over, I was still in court and I wasn’t there. Caroline went into labour way too early. By the time I arrived it was all over. I think she started to hate me then. But when we got back together – it was really good, better than good – it was great. I really thought the worst was over but after a few months all the old resentments came out and we were ripping into each other again. Joe was caught in the crossfire, even he said, “Dad it was better when you lived apart”. Sensible kid, 11 years old and more grown up than his parents. I know you wont believe it but she isn’t always like that but she knows how to wound when she’s cornered. I guess now the trouble really starts. She’ll try and stop me seeing Joe.”  
“Finn you mustn’t worry about seeing your son. She can’t stop you.”  
Finn grimaced. “Let’s hope so. Then of course there was another problem.”  
“What?”  
“You.”  
“Finn did I contribute to you breaking up?”  
“Yes. I’m not blaming you but I just couldn’t bury what I feel for you. That reminds me – why aren’t we having sex yet?”  
“Soon. Finn I’m so sorry.”  
“Don’t be. It was doomed anyway. We’d hurt each other too much to just forget it and be happily married.”

“So what now?”  
“We have sex and then we find some shit hot lawyers!” Finn snorted.  
“No I meant what happens now – with us?”  
“Is there an ‘us’?”  
“Well I think there’s potential.”  
“Potential. I like the sound of that.” He beckoned her with his finger. “Come here and let’s explore that potential shall we?”

Alicia was suddenly feeling nervous. “I just don’t understand why would you want to be with me.”  
“Well to be honest I’m rapidly going off you because we’re still talking instead of having sex! Alicia will you please come here?”  
“But Caroline - she’s so much younger and so…”  
“Yes she’s younger than you but what difference does that make? I don’t know why I want to be with you – I just do.”  
“But she’s stunning. She looks like an angel.”  
Finn laughed. “What does it matter what she looks like if we can’t live in the same house without wanting to kill each other after a few days? That kind of takes the gloss off a marriage. Alicia you’re beautiful but how I feel about you has got very little to do with how you look. Now can we please stop talking and just take our clothes off?” A thought dawned on him. “Oh jeez – you think I’m going to compare you. For fuck sake Alicia I want YOU! Pretty desperately as it happens.” He pulled her hand to feel his straining erection and started unzipping her dress. 

Alicia was still shy of showing him her body.  
“Oh god! Can we have the light off?”  
“No – you’re not going to hide from me.”  
“But.”  
“Shush.”  
“Maybe we need to talk some more?”  
“Only if you are sitting on my face while you are talking, just don’t expect me to reply, or listen for that matter!”  
“Finn!”  
“Alicia come on – enough. We’ve waited long enough.” 

Alicia woke early with Finn’s naked body wrapped around hers. She smiled a smug smile, she couldn’t help herself, because after their night together she knew absolutely that Finn wanted her and not Caroline. _"Take that ‘Ice Queen’!"_


End file.
